Beckie Mabbutt

This quick guide is aimed at New Customers who may not be familiar with how I run my business. I find it best to write all these things down to save any confusion in the future.

There are a few things that I feel are essential for me to be able to run a professional and affective business so here they are…

Time Keeping – I will at all times put every effort into being on time for all appointments. In the rare event that I will be more than 10 minutes late I will call you. So please make sure I always have an up to date phone number for you so this is possible. As I take pride in arriving on time could you please make sure you also arrive promptly for each appointment.

Shoeing Conditions – Please provide a flat clear dry area for shoeing, and ensure your horse’s feet and legs are completely dry. Due to health and safety we are no longer insured to shoe horses that are wet and that includes damp and only just slightly damp! If your horse or myself were to get injured during the shoeing and the legs were wet my insurance doesn’t cover me. I wouldn’t want to put you or myself in that position.

If you could also insure you are always at the yard during the full shoeing process. In case the horse needs holding or problems with the feet need to be discussed. It is not safe for me to be at a yard shoeing by myself in case I get injured or the horse escapes etc.

Keeping appointments – I book all appointments in advance as my books are full and there’s not much room for adjustment. So the knock on affect from forgetting an appointment is quite significant. There is a charge of £25 for missed appointments. Also a £25 charge for cancelling appointments within 48 hours of an appointment.

Payment – All payment is expected on the day of shoeing. Cash or Cheque is fine. If I don’t receive payment on the day a £5 late payment fee is added. If I don’t receive payment within 7 days of shoeing your next appointment will be cancelled. In the instance of a bounced cheque please cancel the cheque immediately to save representation which gets charged, and get the cash payment to me within 7 days. Then in future cash payments would be expected.

Horses Behaviour – Farriery is a very high risk profession and being self-employed I need to do my best to avoid injury. If I feel at any time that it is not suitable and too high a risk to shoe a horse please respect my decision. If I get injured shoeing a badly behaved horse I can’t shoe all the well behaved horses. So being fussy is actually beneficial long term to all of you.

Contagious Diseases – In the instance of the very contagious disease Strangles I have very strict guidelines to protect my other customers. Under no circumstances will I attend a yard that has Strangles until the vet has given me the all clear. I want everyone to be assured that I will not knowingly put any of you at risk from such a disease. This goes for Ringworm as well, and any other things I could pass on. If you are directly affected I know this is going to be hard to accept but other arrangements will have to be made during the affected time.

Best times to contact me - My mobile number 07769 735347 is the only number I use for work. My working hours are between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday all calls would be appreciated between these hours. In emergencies you can leave a message out of these hours and I will get back to you as soon as I can. I am happy to receive text messages but during times when I’m away and don’t have my phone with me you won’t get my answer phone message saying that I’m away. I don’t want you to think I’m ignoring you! If you don’t receive a reply within 24 hours please do call to ensure I’m not away.

I hope that this all makes sense. Now that we’ve got the formalities out of the way, we can look forward to giving your horses the best care possible.